Within days the orange plastic fences were installed marking the deforestation zone. Red and blue ribbons noted which trees stayed and which were to go. A few weeks later massive machinery moved in and fired up their diesel engines. Within moments the fragile peace was destroyed and the beauty irrevocably sullied, ..., and for what?
My town is sated with retail stores and strip malls from one end to the other. There is no need and no call for any more of the same old. There are already so many vacant buildings and shopping areas that once held the banner of new after they cleared off another pristine corner of nature. Now those same areas sit in decay, hives for criminal activity. A sign of how unnecessary they were from the beginning. When will they stop?
In less than a month the lot is nearly half cleared out of growth and life. The bright signs that were erected by the developers have already been sun bleached and faded to white, perhaps even they have no stomach for the clamor of the dollar.
... Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise ...
(Eagles, The Last Resort)
